Fahrenheit 451 question 4

The hero in this book would have to be Montag, and he is somewhat of a hero, and not just a protagonist, unlike the last one. If there was one word I could use to describe him, it would be that he is rash. As in he acts before he thinks. Such as when he spouted poetry at Mildred and her friends. In hindsight, it wasn't the best plan, for it caused him to be caught by the firemen. Another situation where something similar happened, is when he steals the book from the old woman that burned herself. It was pretty much that book that caused Beatty to start suspecting that he was hiding books. Montag does manage to accomplish quite a few things in the novel, unlike the last two. For one he escaped the city, which is impressive because it was filled with people looking for him as well as the mechanical dog, the has never failed before. "Mechanical hound never fails. Never since its first use in tracking quarry has this incredible invention made a mistake. Tonight, this network is proud to have the opportunity to follow the hound by camera helicopter as it starts on its way to the target." (Bradbury 133) Although this could simply be them lying to the community, for it did fail to catch Montag, and they did simply kill someone else instead and claim it was a success, and this has probably happened before. If Montag were to represent some sort of abstract idea, it would probably be the concept of truth. For he sees that the society is lying to itself when they say they're happy, and that they are only blinding themselves to the truth by condemning books and reading. He understands that for society to truly become tolerable again, it has to start over, preferably with the upcoming war that no one seems to care about. By understanding this he sort of stands out as a beacon of truth in all the lies, and what not.

Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451;. New York: Ballantine, 1953. Print.